KIM'S DEBUT - MUSIC VIDEO!

Click on the "play" arrow above to access Kim's summer project! The tech-queen / drama-queen has done it again! Who knows. Maybe she has a future in the movie biz. Perhaps a better title than "Feeling It" would be "Sha-Poopie" which is the song from the production of Music Man that is shouted out pretty often in the background. Enjoy this 3-minute video capturing Kim's fun times and fun friends!

Kimmy is headed into tenth grade at Calvert. The Seneca's volleyball season has just kicked off and Kim looks to be a strong outside hitter. Summer is fleeting fast for this girl! Look out - the learner's license is around the corner! Maybe she can drive herself to the Chris's doughnut shoppe on those early Saturday mornings! (Gotta fill the cream sticks!).

The girl is pretty happy that there finally is a post about KIMMY instead of her sister Katie! Don't worry....when Katie returns from swim camp, I'm sure she will have great stories for the next post this month!

Lake Erie Open Water Swim

7:30 on a partly-sunny summer Saturday morning, Kate, Lindsay, and Adam took to the Cedar Point Beach for their first open water swim. The first few photos show Kate and Lindsay lining up, then taking off with around 25 girls in their age group to attach a 2000 meter swim (approx. 1 and 1/4 mile).

The temperature outside hovered around 68 degrees and the water proved to be just a bit warmer. The buoy's were set 500 meters apart so essentially, the girls swam two full laps.

The first lap went pretty well, but the second lap went a bit slower and included a combination of 20-30 freestyle strokes followed by two-three breaststrokes, two "bobs" to bounce off the bottom of the lake, and a dive to swim normally again.

Kate and Lindsay finished 15th and 16th. Since the 6th place finisher's time was around 26 minutes, we estimate the girls finished in around or a little over 30 minutes.

Kate felt the pains of a long distance swim and could barely lift her arm after she finished. Lindsay was fine, and Adam seemed to do much better despite having to swim a greater distance than the girls.

Yes - Adam smam 3000 meters, almost two miles which included 3 laps around the buoys.

A week later, Kate's pains subsided and she was ready to go for the summer season championships. At 11-years-old, there was more excitement for the final day of swim practice where water balloons and squirt gun fights dominate the session!

Stay tune ~ there's a mini-Triathlon at Portage State Park in Akron this September with a 200 meter swim, 7 mile bike ride, and 1 mile run...but that will probably have to wait until next year! One thing is for sure, training with friends can be FUN!

KATIE & MOM IN CHICAGO

Katie and I attended the Women's Leadership Symposium in Intercollegiate Athletics in May. Here she is holding an Olympic Medal from the Beijing China Games! She is pictured with Laura Lappin, a utility player on the 2008 team and an alternate on the 2004 team in Athens Greece. Below she is pictured with Christine Brennan, a writer for USA Today and broadcaster for ABC and ESPN. '

Finally, pictured below is Katie in downtown showing off her beautiful hand treatment from the LUSH store! What a good shopper Katie has become! We had a great time with a few of our gal pals! We hit the Miracle Mile, went by the Sears Tower, and took a train, cab, and a shuttle!

2009 ZONES

Click on the arrow to view Katie's zone swim (50 free) at Oakland University last March (We love hearing Lindsay in the background cheering her on!!!!). After waiting hours for her brief swim (hundreds warmed up in the pool at the same time)....she missed the whistle for her event. The quick "slide" starts were distracting and three swimmers missed the whistle in her heat and had terrible starts. Katie completely missed the race and was beyond devastated until she learned she was allowed to swim in open heats the next day along with kids 12-17 years-old. The scoreboard posted a great time of 30.31 (she didn't hit the touch board), but two stopwatches clocked her at 29.78 which was a record! Katie finished 13th overall - the highest finish for any Tiffin swimmer this year! Swimmers qualified from Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, and Wisconsin or PA.

The Tiffin Swim team (Seneca Aquatic Klub) has seven meets this summer....June 18, June 20-21 (Findlay), June 25, July 11-12 (Wooster), July 16, July 18 (Cedar Point Open Water), and July 28 (Champs). She plans to ride her bike (2.5 miles) to the park, have 30 minutes of dryland and an hour in the pool Monday-Thursday 8-9:30 AM. GO KATIE!

KIM PROM DATE

Today's post belongs to Kimmy who is headed to Calvert's prom with Taylor Gase (a.k.a. JUICE), a junior on the track team. Here are two photos...her date and the "group." Hey - they decided to go to mass at St. Mary's first, so at least we know it will start with a good conscience! (Thanks for loaning her the gorgeous dress, cousin Kristen!).

SPRING AHEAD

BYE-BYE WINTER

The girls are excited about spring around the corner (who isn't!). Katie's 11th birthday was great. Tielly loved using his new snowblower and the girls loved having two new babies to play with including baby Anne born on Christmas Day (she belongs to our friends, the Youngs) and baby cousin Zarin who belongs to Neil and Mandy in Atlanta.

Tielly and Bonnie had a great time at the NCAA Convention in Washington DC. Among the highlights was attending a taping of Pardon the Interruption (PTI) with Tony Kornheiser and Micheal Wilbon. The guest was Hines Ward of the Super Bowl championship team, Pittsuburgh Steelers.

KIMMY NEWS

Kimmy plays a lot of volleyball. Her 15-year old Blackswamp team won their first tournament of the season. So far they have finished in the top three every weekend. She is playing middle-blocker which is a strange position for her.....primarily she is a right-side hitter.

This weekend her team plays in Lodi and later in the month she travels to Troy (Dayton). You can click on the link for blackswamp volleyball to keep up with her tournaments. Kimmy also helps to coach a ten year old team. So far, her little tykes have finished first and second in two tournaments! What a coach!

We also have to keep up with her high school activities! You can see she is maturing just as typical high school girls do. The photo to the left was before she went to the "black and white" dance at Calvert. (We almost didn't let her out of the house!).

Kimmy is giving up softball this year since she is performing in a Calvert High School play in April (South Pacific) and a Ritz Theater play in May (Music Man). She also performs in the high school "Show Choir" and will head to Chicago right after her birthday (it's on Easter Day this year!). Getting a learning permit to drive is what is on her mind as of late.

KATIE NEWS

Finally......who is changing the most in physical appearance? That would be Katie! (Wow). She is growing tall and lean and STRONG. This weekend she is swimming in CHAMPS at Fremont Ross High School. You can click on the link for PSYCH sheet to see her qualifying times and seeds. Her individual events are the 50 Free (#31), 50 Fly (#41) and the 100 Free (#77). She swims three events on Saturday and two on Sunday. Already she has qualified for the Great Lakes Zones in the 50 free and 100 free.

Behind Katie in her swim cap photo is her friend Lindsay who has baby sister Anne. Lindsay will go with us to Oakland University next weekend for Zones. Yes, Katie WAS bribed with an I-Pod for making zones which she did receive this morning. Her goal this weekend is to beat her little nemesis' in the free style (Kathryn Smith from Sandusky) and to try to qualify for zones in the fly. Zone swimming includes the top competitors in each age-group from Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana. It should be fun and challenging.

That is enough news for now! Stay tune....and thanks for reading!